Rules For In The Black

In the Black NOTE: These are only core rules; the Referee may overrule any of these at any point in the game.

Part One: Making Your Army NEEDED FOR PLAY • • • •

a fleet of microspace ships pen and paper a few copies of the rules templates for movement and attack range

CLASSES There are 6 different classes of spaceships based on the size of the ship. • Personal • Fighter • Gunship • Frigate • Capital Ship • Space Station • • • • • •

The class Personal is for 1 or 2 manned spacecraft, which is generally limited to escape pods, and does not have any weapons systems. Fighters are small spacecraft that have about 1-2 weapons systems and are manned by 1 or 2 people. Gunships are a little bigger than Fighters and have about 2-4 weapons systems. Frigates are even larger still, but they get Hangars and Bridges, which is something that none of the previous classes are large enough to have. They can have anywhere between 3 and 5 weapons systems, and can hold 1-4 spacecraft. Capital Ships are the largest of the all of the space craft that are able to move. They tend to have about 4-6 weapons systems, and hold 1-6 spacecraft. Space Stations have everything that any other class has, except they cannot move. Space Stations remain in the same place they are put in the beginning of the game. They are also the only class to get Regenerators, which replenish their shields a little when they are down. Space Stations can have 5-10 weapons systems and can hold between 1 and 10 spacecraft.

ENHANCEMENT POINTS Enhancement Points are the number of enhancements you have. Enhancements are the different components that make up your ship and give it different abilities. There are two types of enhancements; weapons systems and non-weapons systems. Weapons Systems • Anti-fighter Guns: +1 against Fighters -1 against everything else • Ion Cannons: +2 against Shields • Missiles: +2 against Hull • Turbo Laser: +1 against both Hull and Shields Non-weapons Systems • Bridge: allows for communications between allies, and can allow for truces • Engines: allow movement • Hangar: allows for storage of other spacecraft • Regenerator: gives back some shields to Space Station • Shields: defends entire ship CONFIGURING HEALTH There are two parts to a ship’s health; the Shields and the Hull. The Shields are just what protects the Hull, and the Hull is the ship itself. In order to blow up a ship, you must first attack its Shields, and once they are down you may destroy the Hull, which essentially destroys the ship. But we’ll get more in detail with that later. In order to calculate the Hull, you add up the Enhancement Points (EP) and multiply them by a number based on the ship’s size. x1 Personal x2 Fighter x2 Gunship x3 Frigate x3 Capital Ship x3 Space Station For example, if a ship was a Fighter and had 3 EP; 3(the ship’s EP) x 2(It’s size designated number) = 6 (the Hull of the ship) The Shields of the ship is 2/3 the Hull; 2/3 x 6 (the Hull of the ship) = 4 (the Shields of the ship)

Part Two: Playing the Game SETTING UP Quadrants, equal teams, play area THE TURN There are 2 phases to a turn; Movement and Attack, and you can do them in any order. Use the necessary template for Movement. The base Attack is 2, and then you add on or subtract based on what Weapons Systems you have and their abilities.